Nobel Laureate calls for emergency economic meeting

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has made a call for an emergency economic meeting to help the country solve its current challenges especially as it relates to the constant depreciation of the naira.

He made the call when he visited the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Thursday, said experts and consumers should be invited to the meeting.

He said, “The economic condition of a nation and of a people does not deteriorate overnight. Something came before that deterioration.

“Recovery is going to take quite a while. The President should call an emergency economic conference, with experts to be invited; consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts, professors, etc.

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“I think we really need an emergency economic conference, a rescue operation bringing as many heads as possible together to plot the way forward.”

The Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Muda Yusuf agreed with Soyinka's position, saying the call couldn't have come at a better time.

He said, “We have an emergency in our hands no doubt. There is a need to discuss the current economic model. Whatever model we are using has not been working for us. We need to revisit the model and see if we can continue with it.

“Call it consultative forum or whatever, we need to gather stakeholders and technocrats in relevant areas to examine our fiscal and monetary policies. We have macroeconomic issues and we have experts in relevant fields who can discuss and enrich the government’s economic policies”

The naira has on Thursday experienced further depreciation and is now valued at 391 against a dollar.